Q&A Thursday

First, some housekeeping: if you got an email from Substack that said your subscription to Agents & Books has ended, just ignore it. I finally took down all the posts from our old home and I think some people got a random message.

Also, I know account management is harder here than the other place, but I'm working on some FAQs that will help, and they'll be on the homepage soon.

Now, on to the questions!

A asks: I am kind of obsessed with hearing industry professionals talk about the 2026 publishing predictions and would love to hear yours! What do you think will be 'in' this year? And what do you think might be on its way out?

I'm not one for predictions, actually. I mean, I'll give you some here because I agree it's a fun exercise, but I dislike being wrong so much that I'm unlikely to make any real guesses. I don't want to think in December I can't believe I thought Haunted Pharmacies would be the next big thing in Horror! (Ok, a haunted pharmacy sounds amazing setting for a book though.)

My easiest prediction is that romantasy is going to fall off in terms of sales and popularity. Now remember, basically all the books that are going to come out in 2026 are in the warehouse, on their way to the warehouse, at the printer, or in production. There are relatively few "drop-in" titles, except for things like Heated Rivalry Sudoku or whatever. We all have seen this coming. That doesn't mean